They Know Me Here
by chancewriter
Summary: Sasuke came back from a year long mission to find that Naruto and Hinata had divorced and nothing was ever the same again. As Sasuke tries to help Hinata come to terms with a devastating, life-changing event - denial, resistance, submission - they're unware that these are also the steps they must take to find each other's hearts.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto

**A/N**: Hello folks. My first SasuHina (kinda, my other fic, _The Way of the Geisha, _had traces of SasuHina in it). I wanted to make a slightly melancholy, after the war romance and here it is. Hope you like it.

* * *

A land void was causing him all this house trouble, is what the official told him.

After the earthquake that happened nearly two weeks ago, Sasuke decided that he was sick and tired of stepping onto the front lawn of his apartment complex and sinking up to his ankles. The official told him that the earthquake shifted around the soil and that now there were land voids or cavities under the apartment complex. The building was structurally unsound. The point of the matter was that he would have to eventually move.

Sasuke's mind was a few miles away sitting comfortably in the back balcony of his apartment, staring out at the peaceful garden and the view of the mountains. He didn't want to move, damn it!

Though his mind was far, his physical body was currently hurtling through the trees; his step on each tree branch after tree branch was light like the breeze. There was a slightly whistling wind doing an excellent job of masking any noise he might make. It was because of this slightly noisy wind that he didn't hear someone crying until he was almost upon them. He stopped and from his position atop a relatively spindly branch, he looked closer, peering through the thick foliage. It was almost dusk, but the summer sun was still burning brightly, affording him enough light to see that it was Hinata Hyuuga crying her eyes out as she stood atop a river.

Sasuke had only ever said 'hn' to Hinata Hyuuga in the last two years and couldn't see himself changing that now. He looked her over (as best as he could from his distance) and decided that she didn't look like she was in a life or death situation and thus, didn't need his help. Though, he couldn't help but be slightly amazed at her control. He knew that she was an excellent and worthy kunoichi, but still! The water was moving quite rapidly and the current was strong, yet she wasn't budging.

He was about to leave when he felt the spike in chakra and saw her turn around sharply to face him. She quickly wiped her eyes (and with it any traces that she had just activated her Byakugan) and slowly left the river to walk towards him.

"Sasuke-san," She said as she stopped in front the tree he was perched.

"Hinata,"

He jumped down, underestimating how close he would be to her and almost landed on her feet. Hinata politely took three steps back.

"Good form," He managed to say when the silence drew on for too long.

"Uhh, thank you."

"You always cry on raging rivers?"

Her eyes widened and she blushed and avoided his gaze. He guessed that he shouldn't have brought it up.

"What are you doing here? Don't you have Counsel meeting with the Hokage?"

_Oh, so he's Hokage and not Naruto-kun_, Sasuke idly thought.

"No."

"Aa,"

Silence stretched again and Sasuke decided to throw her a conversational bone.

"I was heading back from training. I was going to get something to eat."

"Oh. Me too." She realized a second too late that he had already caught her decidedly _not_ doing that. She blushed more after being caught in that lie, but he decided to ignore her.

"Know any good places? And do not mention any ramen stalls. I'm sick and tired of ramen." He muttered that last part and she gave a small indulgent smile that she tried to hide from him.

"Um, there's a place upstairs the bookstore on Temple street that serve really good, taste-like-home food."

"Is it quiet?"

"Very."

Sasuke turned without warning and leapt up to the tree. Hinata was a bit surprised by his sudden departure. He turned back to look down at her.

"Aren't you coming?"

"What?"

"Didn't you say you were going to get something to eat?"

"Um, when did I –" Noticing the miniscule smirk on his face, Hinata realized that he was teasing her about her earlier lie. _Teasing_! Sasuke Uchiha was capable of teasing and not arrogant taunting! To save face, she uttered, "Oh, yes, yes, of course. Coming."

She leapt up to the branch expecting him to move, but he moved a second too late with the effect being that for a moment they almost occupied the same space and they were practically nose to nose with each other. He took a backwards leap about a millisecond later, but by then it was too late. They had already invaded each other's personal space – twice in two minutes. Unknown to each other, they both silently remarked on how old they looked for twenty-five.

During their walk towards Temple Street, Hinata wondered why she didn't simply tell Sasuke that she was heading home to have dinner. It would have saved her face and she wouldn't be in this awkward situation. Now, now she had to follow through on her words if only so that she wouldn't look like a cowardly liar. But would it be so bad? It had to better than this. She could understand that conversation would be scarce when they were in the trees as he was ahead of her at all times. But now that they had arrived in the main town and had been walking for ten minutes now in absolute silence, Hinata wondered whether she should fake an epileptic fit just to get out of this incredibly uncomfortably awkward situation. She looked to him for social cues and realized that that in itself was a hopeless situation.

Maybe he'd just order take-away, she hoped and save both of them face.

The restaurant was indeed quiet, Sasuke noted. It was small too, which was excellent. He never was a people person and he doubted he'd ever become one. That was probably the biggest hitch in his I-want-to-become-Hokage plan.

Sasuke ordered some _gyudon donbori,_ _onigri _and some orange juice. Hinata noted with great despair that he did not order it to-go. She ordered _tonkatsu_ with apple juice and went to join him at the table in the corner.

They were the only patrons there.

He picked up his chopsticks and she followed suit, only taking a bite of a piece of cabbage after he took up a sliver of beef from his bowl.

"This is really good." He said after he'd swallowed.

"Mmhmm. The vegetables are always fresh too. I like that, for a fast food place."

"It's quite good," he repeated, "but not as good as your cooking."

Hinata looked up utterly surprised. Her chopsticks were still in her mouth saving her from letting her mouth hang open in shock. Sasuke noticed.

"You cooked for Naruto when you were married to him, didn't you?" She nodded dumbly to his question. He couldn't help but notice the very subtle change in her eyes – shrewder, waiting to shut him down in case he brought up any questions about what happened between her and the blonde idiot. "Well, I've tasted the food and – " Sasuke cut off abruptly when he saw her countenance fall from surprise to mild disappointment? He wasn't sure of her expression. "He ate the food that you cooked for him; but he also shared when I visited."

"Oh. I thought…" She trailed off and bit into a piece of breaded pork cutlet to hide the fact that she left her sentence hanging.

"Thank you," She said belatedly and he gave her a slightly questioning eyebrow pop. Almost forty-five seconds had passed since they had said anything and he forgot what they were talking about. She elaborated, "I'm glad that you liked my food."

"Actually, I was surprised that you would not only know how to cook, but that you could cook so well."

"Why?"

"You look pampered and spoilt."

Hinata was slightly offended and decided not to tell him that _he_ was the one that was spoilt and he didn't just look it. Instead, all she said was,

"That's not true."

"I never said it was. I only said that that's the way you appear. You also look sheltered," he said quickly before she could object and the conversation could devolve into an argument. He wasn't in the mood for arguments. He had enough of that from Naruto. "You look like you wouldn't even know where the kitchen was in your house."

"Do you?" She muttered into her juice, but he heard her and smiled slightly.

"No, I don't cook."

"Aa," He smiled a little more now, but she missed it as she was focussed on her food again. She was subtle in her jabs. He missed subtle lately.

Conversation lagged again, but this time it was Hinata that broke the ice. She crunched loudly on her ice cubes, forcing him to look up at her and then she cleared her throat and said,

"It started as a hobby; cooking, that is. I really like baking too. It's just one of my many hobbies like pressing flowers, dancing and homeopathy. Do you have any?"

Sasuke blinked at her blankly and Hinata felt like an idiot. After she had made up her mind to start a conversation and even planned out her little speech of interesting factoids about herself, he just sat there like she just said the stupidest thing. He couldn't even pretend to be polite! Her face slowly reddened, more from shame than anger.

"I don't have any hobbies." Sasuke responded after a few beats of seeing her angrily stab at the pork. "I don't see the purpose of them."

Hinata looked up at him, her eyebrows knotted in confusion. Sasuke cruelly thought that with her white eyes that gave her a slightly vacant look, plus the look of confusion – she looked a bit mentally slow.

"It's…it's to relax you, entertain you." She said slowly. "Don't you ever get bored?"

"All the time. That's why I…" He trailed off, making a lazy gesticulation about their current situation. He didn't know how to explain that their entire current situation of dining together was based on his acute boredom. Well, he knew how to say it, but he preferred not to since judging from her look of recognition, she already realized what he was going to say. She was smart to the subtle cues, this one.

"Why are you so bored? You're so involved in politics. I mean, you might not be Hokage, but you're the Hokage's right hand advisor. Does politics not hold your interests?"

"I don't know. The problem is I'm not so much bored as maybe empty…I don't really know how to explain it."

"Oh," And she went back to eating her food. Sasuke didn't know what to say to that. Usually the other person would politely insist that he try to explain how he felt, but Hinata didn't seem to care. She was never particularly interested in him. She was married to Naruto for three years, divorced from him almost two years and still Hinata had barely given Sasuke anything but polite and scant attention. She intrigued him and he didn't realize that until right at this moment – twenty-five years into their knowing each other.

They sat there for a while not saying anything. The only sound that could be heard was their utensils knocking against their bowls.

"It's probably because you don't have a good home or a wife. You have an apartment, but no home." Hinata said quietly. "I mean, you have a good job and you're quite possibly one of the greatest shinobi in the world and you have an apartment and it's –"

"It's shitty," He said for her. She looked at him in muted confusion. "It was heavily damaged by the earthquake. It's sinking into the ground." He explained.

"Oh. That's really unfortunate. Well, the Uchiha compound was damaged a lot from since the days of the war, but maybe you could –"

"I don't want to live there."

"Okay. Maybe you need to find a home, not a house. It could be the next step in your life. Maybe you could build one or restore one. It could be your hobby."

She smiled at him slightly, quite proud of her suggestion. Sasuke continued with his meal, missing her downtrodden expression after her idea was wordlessly rejected. They ate in silence for the rest of the meal. Sasuke paid when they were finished. Hinata insisted that she pay for her share. In the end he relented.

When she was handing him his exact change into his outstretched hand, making sure not to actually let her fingers touch his, Sasuke randomly said,

"A home doesn't sound so bad."

Hinata blinked at him for five seconds before recognition hit. She just barely managed to not roll her eyes. And people say she had delayed responses. He took over ten minutes to bring up his response!

Hinata didn't bother to respond. She didn't know what to say anyway. They parted ways with no fan fare whatsoever, no promise to see each other another time.

A home.

When she entered into hers, the Hyuuga compound, she felt a weird sensation in her chest as she shut the door of her bedroom behind her. What was the next step in her life, she wondered. Her home, her old home with Naruto – she shut her eyes tightly and bit her bottom lip hard when her mind uttered the name – her home with him was broken.

What was the next step in her life? The thing was that Sasuke couldn't explain why he felt empty, but he didn't need to. She knew exactly how he felt.

* * *

**A/N**: So, what did you think? Review please!


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto

* * *

Sometimes everything aligns itself perfectly for just a brief moment; the universe demanding attention, no more subtle hints and obscure signs.

That was how Sasuke felt as he stopped in front of the old farmhouse on a Wednesday evening. He was coming from a meeting that he had with the members of the Downtown Konoha Merchants Association and the Konoha Farmers Society when he noticed the farmhouse.

He had probably passed on this road once or twice in the last six months and he'd be a very lousy ninja if he said that he never noticed the broken down farmhouse before. But he had never noticed it like this. Sure the bushes were overgrown around it and the house itself looked like it was being held up by spit and a prayer, but something about it caught his eye. Maybe it was the lighting of the day. It was dusk now and the lighting had softened significantly because of the setting sun, casting strong contrasts of light and dark. The trees shimmered in the waning light. On the towering hills behind it were probably some members of the Konoha Farmers Society's crops. There were terraces upon terraces of tea bushes. He walked further into the abandoned property and headed towards the backyard where the view momentarily stunned him. Acres of land extended until it met up with what must have been the boundary. From there were rice paddies and fields of corn that extended from the valley and then stopped as they met the slowly rising hills of tea. The sun was setting gloriously, casting a surreal golden glow over the picturesque scene. To his right was a stone pathway that disappeared in a dip hidden by some bamboo. Sasuke followed the path and was slightly surprised to see that he came upon the Hyuuga compound. He strode up to the western gates.

Sasuke was escorted through to the wisteria courtyard and was instantly aware of why they named it so. There were wisteria vines hanging from pergolas on all four sides of the courtyard that was already surrounded by bright white evening primrose growing so abundantly that he couldn't see the ground in some places. It was different from other courtyards that were made up of hard, packed dirt. Here a thick and lush lawn covered the courtyard, with wooden benches strategically placed under the pergolas. Hinata was tending to one of these shrubs when he approached. His escort left him and he noticed that he was not announced. Not surprised when dealing with a Hyuuga. She probably spotted him while he was still looking at the farmhouse. She though, was almost camouflaged dressed as she was in a black _yukata_ with white and bright purple flowers, her sleeves held back by _tasuki_. She was the garden personified.

"You always garden this late in the evening?" He asked her as he walked nearer to her, leaning against the beam of the pergola. He watched her straighten up to greet him fully.

"I was almost finished trimming the deadheads." She said; shears still in hand.

"Don't you have a gardener?"

"I like to take care of the garden myself. Well, this section at least. Taking care of the garden for the entire estate would be a full-time job."

"I sometimes forget that you're a ninja."

Hinata's slight and polite smile tightened, alerting Sasuke to the fact that he had insulted her, unintentionally, not that he was going to apologize, but he might explain.

"I hardly hear of you going on missions or seeing you in the mission report room. And dressed in that _yukata_…"

"I'm off today." Was all she said and he couldn't help but notice the overly polite and abrupt way in which she said it. He seemed to have annoyed her. He might as well stop with the small talk, slightly amazed that he even bothered to engage in small talk with her. My, had he changed…

"Who owns the abandoned farmhouse on the hill a mile from your home?"

"The Hyuuga."

"Aa," He should have known. Now he had to be a lot nicer to her.

"Is it for sale?"

"You want to buy it, Sasuke-san?"

"I'm thinking about it."

"Why do you want to buy it?"

"I –" Again, he couldn't explain himself. This only seemed to happen around her. She must think him ineloquent, but knowing his history, or lack thereof, with Hinata, she most likely thought nothing of him at all.

"Well, if you're not busy tomorrow morning we could take a look around the property together."

"So it is for sale?"

"When you've made up your mind, the Hyuuga will make up their minds." She responded evasively. Though, he had to admit that she spoke like an heir. He knew that her father never fully recovered from the injuries he sustained in the war. She was not the Clan Head Regent – Hanabi was – and why hadn't she been given the Caged Bird sea – did they get rid of that? – but she acted like it today. He mildly wondered what power play went on in the household, but his mind started to think about the Uchihas and their power plays and he didn't like those thoughts.

Sasuke turned to go, crossing the length of the courtyard, not bothering to let her escort him. He didn't know why he looked back, but he did. Apparently, she still insisted on walking him out, if from a distance of three feet behind him. When he turned around a wind had blown her hair in her face, strands getting stuck in her mouth. Framed against the background of the wisteria and the periwinkles, Sasuke found himself staring. She looked at him in confusion. He forced himself to turn away from her, but found he couldn't. In her desire to escape the awkwardness building between them because of his stare, she did the exact opposite of what she wanted,

"W-would you like to stay for t-tea?"

Why, why invite him to extend his presence, she wondered. Her nerves caused her to stutter. It had been a long time since she felt that uncomfortable.

"No, I have…mumbrl."

"What?"

Goodness! She must think him illiterate! That had never happened to him before. He never mumbled unintelligible ramblings just because he was feeling – heck, he didn't even know what he was feeling right now. All he knew was that he was feeling uncomfortable.

It was getting dark now and her eyes were reflecting the light of the moon. She was like a cat, he uselessly thought.

"I have to go." He said and turned on his heel, this time not looking back as if his life depended on it. Because of that he missed Hinata's sigh of relief.

Sasuke was strange, she thought. And rude. He was strange and rude.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto

**A/N**: I apologize for this being so late.

* * *

By half past five the next morning Sasuke was awake. He looked at his window. The drapes were closed, but still the sun was starting to peek through. This summer was rather hot. It had been weeks since he felt the need to sleep with the covers on him.

He got up, did some meditation followed by some katas that he repeated for about a half of an hour. He went to the bathroom and by twenty to seven he had already completed his shit, shower and shave routine. Breakfast was leftover fish and rice that Sakura brought for him two days ago. It tasted bad then and it tasted even worse now. Still, he ate. Now that Naruto was married to Sakura the days of good food went when Hinata and Naruto went their separate ways.

Hinata.

Sasuke concluded and accepted that last night's odd verbal diarrhoea was the result of a fleeting attraction to Hinata. Just like the farmhouse, the perfect lighting conditions coupled with the exact timing and mood of the day caused her to momentarily stun him with her appeal. He was sure when he saw her this morning she would look like normal and boring Hinata that had a tendency to fade into a background, any background. He wondered if she ever thought about specializing in infiltration. He would have to talk to Naruto about it.

Sasuke paused. Like Hinata, any mention of the ex-spouse was a taboo topic to Naruto. And for whatever reason, Sakura was even worse. Sasuke wasn't sure whether Sakura was drinking tea for Naruto's fever and that was why she was even worse when it came to any mention of Hinata or if she just really didn't like any mention of her husband's ex.

Speaking of taboo topics, Sasuke looked at the calendar. It was the fifteenth of July. It was the anniversary of his godson's death.

* * *

He spotted her from a distance. She was at the gravesite, her face solemn as she mumbled some prayer or the other. There were two bouquets of flowers there already. Sakura always brought Peace lilies and apparently Hinata bought a bouquet of white and blue hydrangeas. He approached her quietly.

"Good morning, Sasuke-san."

She didn't look the least bit surprised. With those damned eyes she must have spotted him two miles ago when he stepped out of his apartment, he cynically mused.

"Hn"

He put down his bouquet of white roses next to hers and stepped back. The cemetery was on a hill. He looked out and saw downtown Konoha unfurling before him. The public cemetery – he had heard that the first big fight had been where to bury: The Hyuuga's private cemetery or here. Sasuke wondered if the bitterness in her heart towards Naruto started at that point.

She was still down on her knees. Thankfully she wasn't crying, loudly, that is. He noticed the tears on her cheeks.

"All that I have is doubt," She muttered to her son's grave.

"I know how you feel." He muttered to himself. He felt a spike of chakra and looked towards the trees, but when he looked back at her, knowing that she felt it too, she looked normal. She started to rise, but seemed unable to, stumbling. Sasuke helped her before she collapsed.

"Hinata,"

Sasuke looked up to see Naruto had finally arrived. Oh, so she did see him coming, Sasuke thought as he tried to set Hinata upright, but she was down on her knees and seemed like she would never get up. Naruto hurried over to help her up. The combined of strength of Naruto and Sasuke trying to lift her up momentarily sent Hinata a few inches off the ground.

"You're getting way too light, Hina." Naruto said to her, removing his touch and leaving her to lean entirely Sasuke. Hinata said nothing. She seemed incapable of existing for a moment. If Sasuke let go of her, Naruto was sure she would collapse.

"Hinata," Sasuke called to her, genuine concern on his features. He didn't like the way she looked right now. She looked too pale.

"Hina? Hinata!" Naruto's voice seemed to snap her out of whatever state of impenetrable weakness she had fallen into.

"No need to shout, _dobe_." Sasuke said, but Naruto ignored him. He grabbed his ex-wife's hand. She squeezed his hand.

"Hina, you alright?"

Hinata looked up at him, then down at her right hand in his and pulled away her hand gently. Naruto looked properly rebuked then his features hardened into his usual false smile, just like hers. Sasuke saw that they were resolute in their decision to not have anything to do with each other. He felt a hollowness that he couldn't explain. It was like watching their marriage fall apart again in three seconds.

Hinata straightened up and turned to go without a word to either man.

"Things got so out of hand," Sasuke heard Naruto mutter.

Sasuke turned to look at the gravestone again. "He would've been what, four by now, right?"

Naruto dropped to his knees and Sasuke already recognized Naruto falling into an angst coma. They were supposed to have a meeting today with Shikamaru at eleven. Sasuke knew he could confidently cancel that meeting because it was impossible to get Naruto to move from this spot before twelve today. He looked at his self-proclaimed best friend and put a hand on his shoulder – a rare showcase that their friendship was not as one-sided as he liked to make it seem. He would be there for him later if he needed someone to talk to or just to sit and say nothing at all. He was excellent at the latter. He squeezed Naruto's shoulder, then turned to leave.

* * *

Sasuke followed Hinata all the way to the broken down farmhouse. By the time he caught up to her, her eyes were dry and she looked a lot less like a ghost. Still, the aura of sadness hung off of her like a shroud. She was brave though, and tried to smile when she saw him. The smile didn't reach her eyes.

They entered the farmhouse silently. They both coughed at the same time when the scent hit them.

"I think that one of the neighbour's cats may have gotten into here." Hinata said as she tried to ignore the putrid and sharp scent of cat piss attacking her nostrils.

"Hn. Why didn't the Hyuuga take better care of this place?"

"We were just about to, but there were so many people clamouring to buy our rundown farmhouse that we decided to leave it as is."

Sasuke looked over to her. She was being sarcastic, wasn't she? Was she? He smirked. Maybe the rumours were wrong. She was a true Hyuuga – he couldn't read her at all. Inadvertently, he activated his Sharingan.

"Would you prefer to do this at another time?" He asked noticing the slight shaking of her fingers. She seemed to be emitting an aura of sadness, reverberating around her like the shimmer of heat on tin rooftops. He knew that feeling too well.

"No, no, I'm fine. Look, the floors don't seem so bad." She said as she walked over to the _irori_. Sasuke followed her, standing next to her, both of them looking at the built-in hearth that probably served as the cat's personal litter box.

They explored the ground floor and Sasuke noted that the hardwood floors were a heavily scuffed, but still sturdy. The house itself was not large, but seemed large due to the well thought-out layout. He would have to replace all of the original exterior doors and windows and trade the sliding shoji screen doors and windows for more sturdily framed glass doors and windows to let in more light and keep out the weather, but otherwise it seemed workable.

They headed upstairs to where the bedrooms were. On the third floor they stood in the centre of the one small storage room talking about where he would install the interior bathroom or whether he would keep it separate when they heard creaking.

They both looked up in time to see piece of the roofing come hurtling towards them. They pushed each other out of the way as they simultaneously attempted to jump back. Except, Sasuke's strength was far greater than Hinata's and the result was that he pushed her straight to the edge of the window. The old window sill creaked under the sudden impact and gave way. Sasuke rushed to the window. She was lying flat on the ground.

"Hinata!"

"Ugh." She answered a bit dazed. She hadn't braced for that fall at all.

"Can you move?"

She nodded and Sasuke let out a small sigh of relief that he hadn't crippled her on her son's death anniversary. He jumped down to her.

"I have a question."

"What?" She replied as she tried to sit up, a bit annoyed that he made no attempts to help her.

"Are you going to charge me extra for the skylight?"

Hinata looked up at Sasuke in confusion. His face was impassive, but was there something like humour in those reddened eyes? Was Sasuke…_joking_? He was! Or maybe she was in his genjutsu. Did it really matter? Real or not Sasuke made a joke! An incredibly lame joke too!

A smirk crept up that turned into a full blown smile and escalated into a chuckle. She covered her mouth with her hand, but Sasuke could see that this time the smile reached her eyes.

He didn't know why, but that made him feel better.


End file.
